4 ms·

First Google Android Web-Enabled TV On The Way

18 points by muratmutlu 17y ago

mseebach 17y ago
A modern digital TV is a big monitor with a tuner slapped on. It's so blindingly obvious that we need to slap a computer on there, too, that it's surprising this hasn't already happened. The reason isn't "interaction between commercials and Android handsets" (yawn, back to the future called, they want their TV back) - it's so we can run applications on it, that can talk to the internet and make the TV experience interactive.
- muratmutlu 17y ago
  Isn't that the same thing? It's not about using your Android handset as a remote, it's about things like getting content based around what you're watching, whether that is on the screen or transfered to your phone. Agree with the first part, surprised it's taken so long. But it seems like that the feature comes at a cost right now, even though the tech has been around for ages
  - mseebach 17y ago
    My point was just that there's a vast territory to be conquered in simply making TV watching pull and open rather than push and closed. Content-aware device interaction is such a small side-show to that, that it seemed like the article misunderstood the whole premise of pull vs. push. I think a reason it's taken so long, is that if you wanted an open OS, you needed a full PC, and those are expensive. Apple TV was a step in the right direction, but pretty locked down. Android is the first open OS to run on less than a full PC, so it's a good platform for basically an open Apple TV.
    - muratmutlu 17y ago
      Oh yeah sure, that was point I'm making...so pull i.e the user making the first interaction to engage, not just being pumped out wallpapers etc. That model obviously has endless possibilities but I think that sort of functionality could be amazing, especially with advertising (my focus) Exciting stuff
    - stcredzero 17y ago
      My point was just that there's a vast territory to be conquered in simply making TV watching pull and open rather than push and closed. If the audience could vote up and link ads like they can on reddit.com, this would be a tool of tremendous power for marketers to take the pulse of their market. As a side effect, commercials would get more enjoyable As a result of more direct coupling to market forces.
      - muratmutlu 17y ago
        Very cool idea! Ads could even be swapped out and replace on the fly, meaning that it could match your profile etc. meaning more targeted advertising.
- CWuestefeld 17y ago
  A modern digital TV is a big monitor with a tuner slapped on. I think that's precisely why we should not add a computer there as well. I expect to keep a TV much longer than a computer, so I'd rather be free to upgrade one without the other. In fact, what I really want is to buy a TV-grade monitor without either a tuner (because the video feed comes either from my DirecTivo or my XBox) or speakers (because my stereo handles that stuff).
  - mseebach 17y ago
    Think of it not as a computer, but a tuner for the interwebs. If it can display a full-screen MKV HD stream, with room to spare, is programmable, and it can talk to the control-channel on the HDMI inputs, it's hard to imagine what should come about that would render it obsolete.
    - wmf 17y ago
      3D, new codecs, new DRMs, etc. If you truly want a future-proof box it would have to be ridiculously overpowered (like the PS3 was in 2006) and thus expensive, but few people are willing to pay now for option value that will be unlocked later.
- mikeryan 17y ago
  Actually this started happening two years ago (of maybe bigger surprise is that Yahoo has actually been driving this) http://odopod.basecamphq.com/W2436833 http://odopod.basecamphq.com/W2436833 (full disclosure - my company built the CBS widget for the Yahoo platform) There's actually a bunch of App platforms on TV now. Vudu has one (Lua based) and many of the manufacturers are doing their own. (Samsung and Panasonic both have their own) What's a bit strange is that many CE manufacturers are doing are HTML/JS engines. Going to Android/Java is an interesting choice as opposed to chrome with CE-HTML
bcl 17y ago
Is that article really correct? Hulu has actively blocked itself from being run on devices, and Netflix doesn't have a Linux client (other than the Roku). Their apps page (http://www.peopleoflava.com/television/scandinavia/apps/ http://www.peopleoflava.com/television/scandinavia/apps/) makes no specific mention of these.
- jrockway 17y ago
  Seems like Dell has made a deal with Netflix for streaming videos to their Android-based Mini 5. So it is possible that these folks did too.
stcredzero 17y ago
Can’t wait for notifications to interupt me whilst watching The Wire. That would be a great feature for a tablet like the iPad or a smartphone. Have the notifications come up on synced devices so the video screen can stay unmolested for the viewers.
- jrockway 17y ago
  You mean, exactly how things work right now? (If someone calls me, it comes up on my phone, not on my TV.)
  - stcredzero 17y ago
    But with Twitter, Facebook, and everything else that comes up on Growl.
jrockway 17y ago
I am a bit of an Android fanboi, but one thing that would prevent me from buying something like this is the hardware makers' consistent inability to keep the current version of Android running on their devices. I want root and full specs so I can do this, or I want daily builds from git. Otherwise, I'm not wasting my money on something that's outdated before I open the box. (I've been promised Android 2.0 on my Archos 5 IT since December, and I've been promised Android 2.1 on my myTouch3G since last fall. Neither have materialized. So fuck you, hardware makers, I'm not wasting any more of my money until you start leaning how to write software in addition to making cool-looking hardware. For Android especially, there's no excuse. The amount of dev time you save by using the open-source solution should give you plenty of time to run "make" and upload the result to the Internets once in a while.)
joelhaus 17y ago
The cable companies really dropped the ball on this one. They already have computers (cable boxes) sitting under every TV in the country. Can't think of a bigger competitive advantage.

18 points by muratmutlu 17y ago

A modern digital TV is a big monitor with a tuner slapped on. It's so blindingly obvious that we need to slap a computer on there, too, that it's surprising this hasn't already happened. The reason isn't "interaction between commercials and Android handsets" (yawn, back to the future called, they want their TV back) - it's so we can run applications on it, that can talk to the internet and make the TV experience interactive.

muratmutlu 17y ago
Isn't that the same thing? It's not about using your Android handset as a remote, it's about things like getting content based around what you're watching, whether that is on the screen or transfered to your phone. Agree with the first part, surprised it's taken so long. But it seems like that the feature comes at a cost right now, even though the tech has been around for ages
- mseebach 17y ago
  My point was just that there's a vast territory to be conquered in simply making TV watching pull and open rather than push and closed. Content-aware device interaction is such a small side-show to that, that it seemed like the article misunderstood the whole premise of pull vs. push. I think a reason it's taken so long, is that if you wanted an open OS, you needed a full PC, and those are expensive. Apple TV was a step in the right direction, but pretty locked down. Android is the first open OS to run on less than a full PC, so it's a good platform for basically an open Apple TV.
  - muratmutlu 17y ago
    Oh yeah sure, that was point I'm making...so pull i.e the user making the first interaction to engage, not just being pumped out wallpapers etc. That model obviously has endless possibilities but I think that sort of functionality could be amazing, especially with advertising (my focus) Exciting stuff
  - stcredzero 17y ago
    My point was just that there's a vast territory to be conquered in simply making TV watching pull and open rather than push and closed. If the audience could vote up and link ads like they can on reddit.com, this would be a tool of tremendous power for marketers to take the pulse of their market. As a side effect, commercials would get more enjoyable As a result of more direct coupling to market forces.
    - muratmutlu 17y ago
      Very cool idea! Ads could even be swapped out and replace on the fly, meaning that it could match your profile etc. meaning more targeted advertising.
CWuestefeld 17y ago
A modern digital TV is a big monitor with a tuner slapped on. I think that's precisely why we should not add a computer there as well. I expect to keep a TV much longer than a computer, so I'd rather be free to upgrade one without the other. In fact, what I really want is to buy a TV-grade monitor without either a tuner (because the video feed comes either from my DirecTivo or my XBox) or speakers (because my stereo handles that stuff).
- mseebach 17y ago
  Think of it not as a computer, but a tuner for the interwebs. If it can display a full-screen MKV HD stream, with room to spare, is programmable, and it can talk to the control-channel on the HDMI inputs, it's hard to imagine what should come about that would render it obsolete.
  - wmf 17y ago
    3D, new codecs, new DRMs, etc. If you truly want a future-proof box it would have to be ridiculously overpowered (like the PS3 was in 2006) and thus expensive, but few people are willing to pay now for option value that will be unlocked later.
mikeryan 17y ago
Actually this started happening two years ago (of maybe bigger surprise is that Yahoo has actually been driving this) http://odopod.basecamphq.com/W2436833 http://odopod.basecamphq.com/W2436833 (full disclosure - my company built the CBS widget for the Yahoo platform) There's actually a bunch of App platforms on TV now. Vudu has one (Lua based) and many of the manufacturers are doing their own. (Samsung and Panasonic both have their own) What's a bit strange is that many CE manufacturers are doing are HTML/JS engines. Going to Android/Java is an interesting choice as opposed to chrome with CE-HTML

bcl 17y ago

Is that article really correct? Hulu has actively blocked itself from being run on devices, and Netflix doesn't have a Linux client (other than the Roku). Their apps page (http://www.peopleoflava.com/television/scandinavia/apps/ http://www.peopleoflava.com/television/scandinavia/apps/) makes no specific mention of these.

jrockway 17y ago
Seems like Dell has made a deal with Netflix for streaming videos to their Android-based Mini 5. So it is possible that these folks did too.

stcredzero 17y ago

Can’t wait for notifications to interupt me whilst watching The Wire. That would be a great feature for a tablet like the iPad or a smartphone. Have the notifications come up on synced devices so the video screen can stay unmolested for the viewers.

jrockway 17y ago
You mean, exactly how things work right now? (If someone calls me, it comes up on my phone, not on my TV.)
- stcredzero 17y ago
  But with Twitter, Facebook, and everything else that comes up on Growl.

jrockway 17y ago

I am a bit of an Android fanboi, but one thing that would prevent me from buying something like this is the hardware makers' consistent inability to keep the current version of Android running on their devices. I want root and full specs so I can do this, or I want daily builds from git. Otherwise, I'm not wasting my money on something that's outdated before I open the box. (I've been promised Android 2.0 on my Archos 5 IT since December, and I've been promised Android 2.1 on my myTouch3G since last fall. Neither have materialized. So fuck you, hardware makers, I'm not wasting any more of my money until you start leaning how to write software in addition to making cool-looking hardware. For Android especially, there's no excuse. The amount of dev time you save by using the open-source solution should give you plenty of time to run "make" and upload the result to the Internets once in a while.)

joelhaus 17y ago

The cable companies really dropped the ball on this one. They already have computers (cable boxes) sitting under every TV in the country. Can't think of a bigger competitive advantage.